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tv   BBC News  BBC News  February 15, 2017 11:00pm-11:15pm GMT

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this is bbc news. i'm clive myrie. the headlines at 11: president trump has met with the israeli prime minister, saying he will work very hard on what he called a great peace deal between israel and the palestinians. i'm looking at to state and one state, and i like the one that both parties like —— two state. the new us defence secretary, james mattis, has warned nato members that washington will moderate its commitment if other allies fail to spend more on defence. malaysian police have arrested a woman in connection with the suspected poisoning of the half—brother of north korea's leader, kim jong—un. on newsnight, president trump taxes own security apparatus and the us media on twitter. where will the russia row go next? —— attacks his own. good evening and
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welcome to bbc news. president trump's public dispute with his own intelligence agencies has intensified. he's accused them of breaking the law by leaking classified information, and he blamed them for the resignation of his national security adviser michael flynn. mr flynn had admitted misleading colleagues about his contacts with russian diplomats. the president is now under even greater scrutiny in relation to alleged russian links, as our north america editor jon sopel reports. these are not the best of times. not yet four weeks in, his travel ban‘s been blocked, his national security adviser‘s been fired and the questions about his links with russia are piling up. and when the president is angry, the place he vents is on twitter and, boy, did he let rip this morning. and, on the reporting of this:
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the president of the united states and the prime minister of israel. at his news conference with the israeli prime minister, no mention of concerns about links with russia and you'd never have guessed that it was the president who'd forced general flynn's resignation. michael flynn, general flynn, is a wonderful man. i thinks he's been treated very, very unfairly by the media. as i call it, the fake media in many cases. and i think it's really a sad thing that he was treated so badly. i think, in addition to that, from intelligence, papers are being leaked, things are being leaked. it's criminal action, criminal act. but on capitol hill there's one central certain among senior
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republicans and democrats, it's the administration's links to the russian government. the base issue is getting to the bottom of what the russian interference was and what the relationship was with associates of the trump effort and so that is the big elephant in the room that has got to be dealt with in the most appropriate way. the american people need to understand, we need to understand and it needs to be dealt with quickly. so this is what we know. on january 15th, the vice—president went on television to deny that russian sanctions had been discussed in those phone calls. on january 26th, the acting attorney general tells the white house actually they were. that's when the president was informed. but it wasn't until february ninth, when the story was about to break in the press, that vice president mike pence was told. that means he was deliberately kept in the dark for over two weeks. listen to the president last friday.
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i don't know about it. i haven't seen it. what report is that? and this was his spokesman yesterday seeking to explain that discrepancy. what he was asked specifically is, was he aware of a washington post story? he hadn't seen that at the time. of course he was involved, ijust said that he was aware of the situation right after the white house council informed him back injanuary. it's hard to avoid the conclusion that this is an administration that is reeling. just take donald trump's controversial travel ban. he announced at the end of last week there'd be a new executive order on monday or tuesday to replace it. it's now wednesday, there's been nothing. work is not getting done because of the turmoil. jon sopel, bbc news, washington. as we've seen, the president has hosted a meeting at the white house, with the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. and mr trump seems to have cast aside two decades of american policy in the middle east by suggesting that the creation
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of a new palestinian state, alongside israel, the so—called two—state solution, is no longer the only peace plan under consideration by america. our middle east editor jeremy bowen has more details. when mr and mrs netanyahu arrived at the white house there seemed to be real warmth. benjamin netanyahu hopes so. he had a sour relationship with barack obama and wants this visit to be a new start. before he was elected president, mrtrump seemed ready to give israel a blank check on the palestinians. mr neta nyahu authorised thousands more homes forjews in the occupied territories in defiance of international law within days of mrtrump‘s inauguration. but now he's in the white house the president has changed his tune. he sees himself as america's greatest deal—maker and seems to believe he can make the deal between israel and the palestinians that evaded the last four american presidents.
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but that, he said, means give and take. as far as settlements, i'd like to see you hold back on settlements for a little bit. we'll work something out. but i would like to see a deal being made. i think a deal will be made. as with any successful negotiation, both sides will have to make compromises. you know that, right? both sides. but in a middle east that is often chaotic, binyamin netanyahu sees opportunities. for the first time in my lifetime, and for the first time in the life of my country, arab countries in the region do not see israel as an enemy, but increasingly as an ally. and that's because israel and the arab states in the gulf have a common enemy. it's iran. it's seen as a big threat in the region. but other arab countries of the gulf
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are also suspicious of the iranians. prompting that talk of a broader regional deal. now, among these are smaller nations, such as bahrain and the united arab emirates and among them crucially is iran's main regional rival, saudi arabia. israel has settled 600,000 dues on a shared land. israeli right—wingers do not like president trump's call to stop expanding settlements. they prefer his backing away from a two—state solution an independent palestine alongside israel. many people on the ground believe the likeliest outcome is no solution at all. jeremy bowen, bbc news. president trump's new defence secretary, james mattis,
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has warned members of nato that america could moderate its commitment to the alliance if they fail to boost defence spending by the end of the year. speaking in brussels, general mattis insisted that nato was the fundamental bedrock of co—operation and security. and he claimed mr trump was a strong supporter as our defence correspondentjonathan beale reports. after yea rs of after years of fighting in deserts, the us marine corps are back in europe. wejoined them in norway learning how to survive and fight in cold weather. all part of reassuring allies, especially those like norway, that share a border with a more assertive russia. but this defence cooperation is far from guaranteed, with president trump having questioned nato's relevance. european allies not spending enough
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is an issue back where you're from, some people say it's obsolete, what's your view of nato?|i some people say it's obsolete, what's your view of nato? i think nato has a great partnership with us, we nato has a great partnership with us, we are nato has a great partnership with us, we are here today because nato has asked us to be part of that, we're part of nato, nato's part of us we're part of nato, nato's part of us and we're working together. today the new us defence secretary, himself a former marine, arrived at nato headquarters to restate that commitment but it came with a morning. it's a fair demand that all that benefit from the best defence in the world carry their proportionate share of the necessary cost to defend freedom. in private general mattis was even more blunt, giving his allies are effectively an ultimatum. he told them the us would moderate its commitment to nato u nless moderate its commitment to nato unless they set out plans to increase their defence spending by the end of the year. america's defence budget wharfs its european allies. the us one of only five nato countries, including the uk, that meets the alliance's own
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target of spending 2% of gdp, or national income, on defence. the vast majority of nato countries are still well below that goal, even though they all made a commitment to yea rs though they all made a commitment to years ago to work towards spending that 2%. secretary matias made it very clear speaking to the nato alliance today that the patience of the american taxpayer is now at an end, that we do need to step up. general mattis has not said what would happen if they don't. and this isn't the first warning. but under president trump, allies cannot take this kind of defence support for granted. jonathan beale, bbc news. the church of england's ruling body, the general synod, has voted against adopting a new statement on homosexuality. the report by the house of bishops called for the church to welcome gay people, but not to change its opposition to same—sex marriage in church. the outcome has been welcomed by gay rights campaigners, who said the document didn't go far enough. police in malaysia have arrested
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a 28—year—old woman in connection with the suspected poisoning of kimjong—nam, the half brother of north korea's leader kim jong—un. kim jong—nam died yesterday after he was attacked at kuala lumpa airport. he'd been critical of the north korean regime, and had been living in exile after being passed over for the leadership. our correspondent karishma vaswani reports from kuala lumpur. it's business as usual in pyongyang, everything moving at clockwork precision. today, north korea's reclusive leader, kim jong—un, made an appearance at a rally celebrating the 75th anniversary of his father's birth, but away from the pomp and the pagentry, a tale of murder and mystery. this man, kimjong—nam, is the north korean leader's exiled older half—brother, he's believed to have been murdered at an airport in malaysia on monday. between the hours of 9am
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to 10am in the morning on monday, the man believed to be kim jong—nam was attacked in this crowded, busy airport. police say that he was accosted by at least one woman who covered his face with a cloth, filled with some sort of burning chemical. malaysian police say these pictures may hold the key to what happened. these cctv images have been broadcast on some malaysian media networks. police have arrested one woman carrying a vietnamese passport who they say is connected to this case. kim jong—nam, seen here as a child with his father, kim jong—il, was the favourite son and next in line to take over until he fell out of favour and spent several years overseas in exile. it's not clear why or even if kim jong—nam was murdered and while south korea says it was definitely pyongyang that ordered the hit, it could also have been a disgruntled business partner,
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and even if it was not pyongyang that ordered the killing, i doubt if there'll be much morning in pyongyang, i doubt if there'll be much mourning in pyongyang, the two half—brothers didn't really get on. you will find some people who will tell you they never actually met. north korea has yet to comment on the murder, but embassy officials spent hours at the hospital, reportedly objecting to a postmortem examination that could determine how he died. they've also requested that the body is released to them right away, but malaysia has refused. karishma vaswani, bbc news, kuala lumpur. you are up to date. now it's time for newsnight, with james o'brien. unprecedented? certainly. unpresidential? probably. is reality catching up with the reality tv president? i think it's very, very unfair what's happened to general flynn, the way he was treated and the documents and papers that
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were illegally — i stress that, illegally — leaked. we'll ask if the white house can defeat the combined forces of the democrats, the fbi, and the "fake media." also tonight... bell rings. did you think this was a stock exchange? no — this secret data centre in newjersey is where the action is. and the closer traders can get to the mainframe, the more money they make. it's not only being in the building as close as possible to the exchange. it's where you are in the building, relative to where the exchange is. a foot of cable equates to a nanosecond, a billionth of a second. people are getting into pissing matches over the length of their cable. does it sound like cheating? we look at how the playing field could be levelled. and on viewsnight, tariq ramadan. good evening.
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in most known universes, it could be either "conspiracy theories and fake news" or valid information allegedly leaked to journalists by intelligence services. in donald trump's universe it can, apparently, be both. not yet a month in office and already one national security adviser down, the american president today took to twitter — where else — to blame pretty much everybody except russians and his campaign team for the reported russian infiltration of his campaign team. more on that momentarily, but first a rather more conventional sortie for a newly—minted president, the middle east peace process.
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